The Israeli Football Association (IFA) has responded to allegations of discrimination and a proposal to suspend the team from the Palestinian Football Association (PFA).
FIFA, the world’s governing body for soccer, launched an investigation into allegations of discrimination against IFA last week. FIFA leaders took the decision earlier this year when they ruled against suspending Israel from international matches, after the PFA proposed suspending Israel amid the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In a statement provided to FOX News Digital over the weekend by IFA Head of Communications Shlomi Basel, IFA criticized the PFA for its recent proposals to FIFA.
“Those who fantasized about suspension of Israeli football from the international stage or sanctions based on lies and false accusations have lost,” the statement read. “Again, in the face of the challenge of the Palestine Association and its leadership to distort reality, we have acted calculatedly and aggressively through a variety of channels, but today’s results do not. No doubt about it.
“We respect the authors of the report submitted to the Board members and the Board members’ decision to consider sending the two matters to legal review, insofar as there is a factual justification for this.” This is insofar as there is some factual basis for it. “On the basis of the football association’s independently determined legal system, we “We have never breached any UEFA regulations and have no intention of doing so in the future,” the statement read.
PFA did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
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Israeli players are seen before the start of the UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying play-off semi-final soccer match between Israel and Iceland at the Shuša Ferenc Stadium in Budapest, Hungary on March 21, 2024. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP)
The PFA’s original proposal called for the war to kill at least 92 non-professional Palestinian players, destroy soccer infrastructure, suspend the league and require the national team to compete in World Cup qualifiers overseas. he claimed. The Palestinian federation had called on FIFA to introduce appropriate sanctions against Israeli teams, including the national team and clubs.
Katarina Pijetrović, head of the PFA’s legal department, referred to FIFA’s decision not to suspend Israel for the ‘X’ post on October 3.
“FIFA has allowed the Israeli Football Federation to continue to use the Palestinian territories (occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem) as its own territory and to use soccer under its umbrella as a means of colonial expansion.” she wrote in a post to X. This is purely political. Why don’t the committee wait another two years to make a clear recommendation, as they did in 2015-17, and then just say “Israel does not have the power to destroy FIFA member associations”? Or? Take advantage of their colonized territory. ”
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Palestinian protesters wave Palestinian flags during the men’s Group D soccer match between Israel and Paraguay during the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Parc des Princes in Paris on July 27, 2024. Some people reach out. (Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP via Getty Images)
Gaza-based soccer journalist Abubaker Abed previously told Al Jazeera that the Palestinian federation was “acting as a form of resistance” and claimed that more than 50 Palestinian sports facilities had been destroyed.
“The Palestinian people know that this team serves as a form of resistance and carries a message to the world,” Gaza Abed said. “More than 50 sports facilities in Gaza have been reduced to rubble, including 9 out of 10 stadiums in Gaza.Almost all clubs have been destroyed in the war, and one stadium in Deir El Bala has been destroyed. It became a refuge for thousands of “displaced people”. ”
FIFA’s disciplinary committee will now be asked to investigate allegations of discrimination. The PFA specifically accused the IFA of complicity in the Israeli government’s violation of international law, discrimination against Arab players, and membership of clubs in the Palestinian territories in the league.
FIFA said in a statement: “The FIFA Disciplinary Committee is authorized to launch an investigation into the alleged discrimination violation brought by the Palestinian Football Association.” “FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee will be tasked with investigating the participation of Israeli soccer teams, reportedly based in the Palestinian territories, in Israeli competitions.”
PFA suspension proposal calls for the creation of an independent legal council to decide whether to ban Israel from international football over its dispute with Hamas, and persuades FIFA to convene a landmark council FIFA president Gianni Infantino said at the FIFA conference. In May.
However, it appears that Israel will not be subject to suspension for the time being. The suspension could have a significant impact on North America’s hopes of competing in the 2026 World Cup. The finals will be held in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from New York City.
In the past, teams have been banned from participating in World Cups based on the actions of national governments and national team management authorities.
After World War II, Germany and Japan were banned from participating in the 1950 World Cup. Due to apartheid, South Africa was suspended from 1966 to 1992 for violating FIFA’s anti-discrimination charter. Mexico was suspended for two years for using an overage player in the 1989 World Youth Championship qualifiers.
Israel only appeared in the World Cup once, in 1970, and never made it past the group stage. Israel won the 1964 Asian Games. However, in 1994, it was transferred from the Asian Football Confederation to the European federation UEFA, and competition there has been difficult. The team suffered its most lopsided loss in history with a 7-1 loss to Germany in 2002.
Israel is currently in the middle of its UEFA Nations League schedule. They started with 0 wins and 2 losses and will face France on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Palestine is currently in the middle of the group stage of the FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers. They started the group stage with one loss and one draw and will face Iraq on Thursday. Palestine has never qualified for the World Cup.
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A fan holds a Palestinian flag during the men’s Group D game between Mali and Israel at the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Parc des Princes stadium on July 24, 2024 in Paris, France. (Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Monday marks the first anniversary of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed 1,195 people, including 815 civilians, and took 251 hostages. The attack left at least 31 Americans dead and 13 missing.
On August 15, it was reported that at least 40,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, but says at least 5,956 women and 10,627 children have been killed.
On Monday, one year after the attack, Hamas commemorated the anniversary by firing rockets into Tel Aviv.
Israel’s war in Gaza is escalating, even as Israel is currently fighting a new war with Hezbollah, and its bombing campaign in Lebanon has escalated over the past three weeks. Israel faced additional attacks last week in the form of missile attacks from Iran, which supports both Hamas and Hezbollah.
Tuesday’s airstrikes forced nearly 10 million people to seek safety in air raid shelters and forced two Israeli women’s basketball teams to abandon their games and seek refuge in evacuation centers, according to the Jerusalem Times. It was done.
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